T. P. Devyatkina, S. S. Panfilova. Religious and magic foundations of divinations in traditional culture of the Mordovians

Introduction. Divinations are common all over the world. Moreover, there are similar trends even in the traditions of ethnic groups isolated from each other, since the craving for knowledge of the future and the search for suitable tools for this is a universal feature of humanity. The article presents a study of the occult practices of the Mordovians from the point of view of their cultural foundations. The religious and magic foundations of divinations as an integral part of the traditional culture of this Finno-Ugric ethnic group are revealed.
Materials and Methods. The material of the study includes the published folklore and ethnographic sources, field materials collected by the authors. The analysis of the material was carried out using the descriptive and comparative methods. The synchronic and diachronic approaches were also applied in the course of study.
Results and Discussion. The study has revealed that in the traditional culture of the Mordovians divinations were carried out using special religious and magical actions to obtain certain information. From this point of view, Mordovian divinations can be classified in two ways. Firstly, individual and collective divinations are distinguished by the number of performers. Secondly, according to the frequency of practice, divinations of the Mordovians could be timed to the main Christian holidays or held on occasion. Divinations were integrated into rituals (funeral, wedding, maternity, family and household), pagan prayers, dream interpretations, and omens. The analyzed examples demonstrate a wide variety of divination practices in the traditional culture of this Finno-Ugric ethnic group. In addition, the level of transformation of divinations in modern Mordovian culture has been determined.
Conclusion. When analyzing traditional Mordovian divinations, various methods of ritual actions and their religious and magical basis were identified for the first time. The functions of divinations are varied. The predominant ones were divinations about marriage, life and death, material security, harvest, and weather. Some of them show similarities with Russian divinations and the divinations of other Finno-Ugric ethnic groups. In modern Mordovian culture, traditional divination has undergone a significant transformation, but has not completely disappeared from existence.
Keywords: Mordovians, divinations, paganism, religious and magic rites, folk signs, dream interpretations, domestic animals, birds

For citation: Devyatkina TP, Panfilova SS. Religious and magic foundations of divinations in traditional culture of the Mordovians. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2023;15;4:450–460. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.015.2023.04.450-460.